HiGole F11APL Apollo Lake Industrial Mini PC Comes with a 11.6″ Touchscreen Display

HiGole F11APL

We’ve previously reviewed a few unusual mini PCs and tablets from Shenzhen Qianhai Gole Technology Co., Ltd – better known as just GOLE – such as GOLE F7 rugged tablet very recently, and before that some mini PCs with built-in display as GOLE 10. The company has now come up with an update to the latter with a more powerful Apollo Lake processor. HiGole F11APL comes with a slightly larger 11.6″ touchscreen display, but the Intel Celeron N3450 processor combined with 4GB RAM and 64GB eMMC flash storage will provide much better performance than the previous Cherry Trail-based solution. HiGole F11APL specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron N3450 quad-core Apollo Lake processor @ 1.1 GHz / 2.2 GHz (Burst frequency) and 12 EU Intel HD Graphics 500 @ 200 MHz / 700 MHz (Burst freq.); 6W TDP System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 Storage – 64 GB eMMC flash,  micro SD slot […]

ODYSSEY-X86J4105800 SBC Combines Intel Gemini Lake SoC and Arduino Compatible MCU

ODYSSEY-X86J4105864

Would it be good to have an all-in-one Windows platform used to both develop Arduino code and run that code to control I/O of your project? Or alternatively, have a single board computer capable of video processing and real-time I/Os? That platform already exists. UDOO X86 II SBC features an Intel Braswell processor combined with an Arduino Leonardo compatible Microchip ATmega32U4 MCU. But there’s now another, more powerful option courtesy of Seeed Studio with the oddly named ODYSSEY-X86J4105800 SBC equipped with an Intel Celeron J4105 quad-core Gemini Lake processor to run Windows 10 or Linux distributions, and a Microchip SAMD21 ARM Cortex-M0+ microcontroller compatible with Arduino Zero. ODYSSEY-X86J4105800 SBC specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron J4105 quad-core processor @ 1.5/2.5 GHz (Turbo) with 12EU Intel UHD Graphics 600 @ 250-750 MHz; 10W TDP System Memory – 8GB LPDDR4 RAM Storage Optional 64GB eMMC flash (fitted to ODYSSEY-X86J4105864 model), 1x SATA III data […]

Raspberry Pi 4 UEFI+ACPI Firmware Aims to Make the Board SBBR-Compliant

As Arm wanted to enter the server market, they realized they had to provide systems that could boot standard operating system images without modifications or hacks – just as they do on x86 server -, so in 2014 the company introduced the Server Base System Architecture Specification (SBSA) so that all a single OS image can run on all ARMv8-A servers. Later on, Arm published the Server Base Boot Requirement (SBBR) specifications describing standard firmware interfaces for the servers, covering UEFI, ACPI and SMBIOS industry standards, and in 2018 introduced the Arm ServerReady compliance program for Arm servers. While those are specific to Arm server, some people are pushing to implement SBBR compliant for Arm PCs, and there’s one project aiming to build an SBBR-compliant (UEFI+ACPI) AArch64 firmware for the Raspberry Pi 4. The UEFI firmware is a build of a port of 64-bit Tiano Core UEFI firmware, and version […]

GOLE F7 Windows 10 Tablet Review – Part 2: Barcode & QR Code Scanner, NFC, and Ruggedness

GOLE F7 Waterproof tablet

GOLE F7 is a waterproof, shock resistant, rugged tablet running Windows 10 Pro 64-bit.  The company sent us a sample together with a charging dock, and you can check out “GOLE F7 Rugged Tablet Review – Part 1: Unboxing and Charging Dock” to find out more about the hardware interface and other physical features of the tablet. I’ve now spent more time with the tablet and tested some of the features such as Barcode scanner and NFC reader. I’ve only done minimal testing of the usual Windows 10 benchmarks since the Intel Atom x5-Z8350 processor powering the tablet has been around for many years, and we have previous mini PC’s reviews showing the performance of the platform in Windows 10 with MINIX NEO Z83-4 Pro or even the previous GOLE F10 model. Instead, I’ve focused on the differentiating features including the ruggedness of the device. GOLE F7 System Info Windows […]

Versalogic Grizzly Embedded Server Board is Powered by a 16-Core Intel Atom C3958 Processor

Versalogic Grizzly with Heat Pipe

Launched in 2016, Intel Atom Denverton processors are usually found in motherboards for low power servers hosted in data centers as well as in network appliances. But Versalogic Grizzly embedded server board fitted with the 16-core Atom C3958 Denverton processor aims specifically at embedded systems with applications ranging from smart-grid, and smart-city applications, to transportation, security, and defense operations. Versalogic Grizzly (VL-ESU-5070) key features and specifications: Processor – Intel C3958 16-core Denverton server-class processor @ 2.0 GHz System Memory – 4x SO-DIMM sockets for up to 128 GB DDR4 of ECC memory Storage – 2x SATA 3 ports, bootable mSATA socket, bootable M.2 NVMe SSD socket Networking – 2x 10GbE SFP+ ports (copper or fiber), 4x Gigabit Ethernet ports Video output – None, but optional VGA/LVDS mini PCIe card available Audio – No on-board audio, but optional VL-ADR-01 audio interface available USB – 2x USB 3.0 host ports Serial – […]

Kontron Launches AMD Ryzen Embedded Mini-ITX Board for Graphics Applications

AMD Ryzen Embedded mini-ITX Board

We’ve seen several AMD Ryzen Embedded boards launched over the last couple of years, but the only one we covered here that happens to follow the mini-ITX form factor was iBASE MI988 motherboard powered by a choice of Ryzen Embedded V1000 processors. But there are others including Sapphire IPC-FP5V 10GbE embedded mini-ITX motherboard, and Kontron has just announced the D3713-V/R mITX motherboard with AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000/R1000 processor and aimed at “demanding graphics applications” such as kiosks, infotainment, digital signage, professional casino gaming systems, medical displays, as well as thin clients and industrial PCs. Kontron D3713-V/R mITX specifications: SoC (one or the other) AMD Ryzen Embedded V1202B dual-core/quad-thread Zen processor @ 2.3 GHz / 3.2 GHz (Boost frequency) with RADEON VEGA 3 graphics; 12W to 25W TDP AMD Ryzen Embedded V1605B quad-core/octa-thread Zen processor @ 2.0 GHz / 3.6 GHz (Boost frequency) with RADEON VEGA 8 graphics; 12W to 25W […]

Kontron Launches the Smallest i.MX 8M Mini Module with 30x30mm Form Factor

Kontron Smallest i.MX 8M Mini Module

Introduced in 2018, NXP i.MX 8M Mini is the first i.MX processor from the company manufactured with a 14nm process, and the low-power processor is found in several compact modules such as Variscite VAR-SOM-MX8M-MINI (38×28 mm), SolidRun i.MX 8M Mini SoM (47×30 mm), or Compulab UCM-iMX8M-Mini (38×28 mm). The smallest i.MX 8M Mini module we’ve covered so far is TechNexion XORE-IMX8M-Mini LGA system-on-module that takes just 30×30 mm of space. The TechNexion module is now joined by Kontron SoM SL i.MX8M Mini module with the same 30x30mm form factor, but a few more pins (267 vs 225). Kontron SoM SL i.MX8M Mini specifications: SoC – NXP i.MX 8M Mini quad-core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.6 GHz with one Arm Cortex-M4 real-time core @ 400 MHz, as well as 2D GPU and 3D GPU System Memory – 1GB LPDDR4 RAM (option up to 4GB) Storage – 8GB eMMC flash (option up […]

Beelink Gemini T45 Pentium N4200 Mini PC Review

Beelink T45-Pentium N4200 Mini PC Review

No sooner had I written ‘Beelink T45 Review with Windows and Linux, and Tweaking BIOS Power Limits’ than Beelink announce they wouldn’t in fact sell that configuration but an ‘updated’ version. And it is significantly different because this new version is now actively cooled and uses an Apollo Lake N4200 processor. It also still has the same name: the Beelink Gemini T45. I’ve now reviewed this new version and you may experience déjà vu on reading the following as in keeping with Beelink’s philosophy I’ve basically reused the same text as before and just updated where appropriate. Beelink have further extended their ‘Gemini’ range of mini PCs by adding the T45. This is an actively cooled mini PC that uses the slightly older Apollo Lake Intel Pentium N4200 CPU which is a quad-core 4-thread 1.10 GHz processor boosting to 2.50 GHz with Intel’s HD Graphics 505. The T45 is a […]